Last week’s poll: how best to inspire tomorrow’s engineers

31st July 20189:06 am31st July 20189:57 am

In last week’s poll – which was produced in association with the organiser of the Tomorrow’s Engineers campaign – we asked readers which message they felt would most effectively inspire the next generation of engineers.

Of the 430 respondents to the poll, 34 per cent agreed that engineers make the world a better place, followed by 32 per cent who believe engineers shape the way we live.

Of the remaining vote, 15 per cent agree that engineers find innovative solutions and 14 per cent say engineering is a well-paid, rewarding career. The remaining five per cent elected for none of the above.

A number of comments followed, with Reinaldo S Sakumoto writing in to say: “In addition to the fact that engineering is generally rewarding, well-paying career, it is also very challenging because engineers are forced to find practical solutions to complex problems all the time. Today, in an age of innovation, engineers are the guys that will contribute the most.”

A common criticism heard at Engineer Towers is that youngsters don’t get enough opportunities to be more ‘hands on’ in their formative years, a sentiment echoed by Charles R. Schneider who said: “We cannot make an engineer out of someone just because they can recite the Pythagorean Theorem. The few good engineers that I know, grew up with all kinds of building materials and tools around them. They could make a mess in the basement, in the yard, in the garage. They could get cut, bang their finger, and make noise. They could go to the local dump and scrounge for things they could use, the scrap yards let them have anything they wanted, yes, the parents had to sign a waiver of injury. The parents did not buy them ready to use solutions, the children found their own solutions. True engineering skills start long before they learn how to use the Pythagorean Theorem.”

Last week’s poll questions were produced in association with Engineering UK, the organiser of Tomorrow’s Engineers Week which takes place from 5 – 9 November, 2018.

Tomorrow’s Engineers Week will show young people how engineers are determined to make the world a better place, and how becoming an engineer gives them the opportunity to turn the things they care about most into engineering careers.

In an interview for Radio 4, HRH DoE said “Everything not invented by God is invented by engineers”. Even if, like Laplace, you have no need of that hypothesis, it is hard to fault that statement of why we should be proud to be engineers.

At the end of the day us engineers are largely practical, pragmatic people and whilst “shaping the way we live” and “making the world a better place” are undoubtedly true, they are a bit on the fluffy touchy-feely side and could equally apply to aspiring politicians and many others! Well-paid and rewarding seem a lot more practical sentiments.

Difficult to understand why making the world a better place is a fluffy goal, I think it’s most practical to want to preserve and improve life on Earth, it is what life means: survive, reproduce, flourish. Maybe The Engineer should have a poll on What is the meaning of life or What do we live for.

The best answer for me would have been Make the world a better and sustainable place for the next 4 billion years, but I am not designing the polls.

The future engineers should focus only on solutions to existential (e.g. climate change) problems or social/economic/environmental problems so that everybody in the world alive today and in the future will have a good and happy life.

I don’t want them to work on solutions in search of a problem, e.g. autonomous cars, elderly caring robots) or frivolous solutions (e.g. the umpteenth app for a sandwich delivery) or outright destructive (e.g. fossil fuels and fossil-based everything).

In addition to the fact that engineering is generally rewarding, well-paying career, it is also very challenging because engineers are forced to find practical solutions to complex problems all the time. Today, in an age of innovation, engineers are the guys that will contribute the most.

I don’t know where in the world you are but here in the UK engineers are looked down as having oily rags in their hands and the title engineer is applied to the gas fitter, washing machine installer, motor mechanic and other such. eg Binman or sewage worker is an environmental engineer. As such pay tends to be low. As long as the title of engineer is bestowed on all and sundry the situation will continue. The title of engineer needs to be protected as are doctors

I struggled with these options because they all ring true to some extent. Then I decided to plump for ‘Engineers find innovative solutions’, as in our industrially-damaged world the young are going to need to find a whole lot of these in the years to come.

I don’t think engineering does always make the world a better place, I guess it depends on your perspective. The reason I stay in engineering is that it’s fun. Most days, even when the pressure’s on, being in engineering feels like being a disc jockey. Imagine that: being paid to play records and talk nonsense to fragile, Facebook obsessed narcissistic teenagers

Technology is mostly neutral, neither good nor bad – it’s how we use it. Engineers helped the realize the Atomic bomb, all manner of other weapons, the internal combustion engine and all powerful petrochemical industry (responsible for all sorts of environmental catastrophes). Useful tool comes to mind that shapes our world, not sure about the other stuff.

I agree with the fun comment if not the disk jockey bit, when my 4 year old asked what I do at work I tried to explain what an R&D engineer does, after listening for a few minutes she summed it up perfectly; daddy plays with BIG toys.

We cannot make an engineer out of someone just because they can recite the Pythagorean Theorem.
The few good engineers that I know, grew up with all kinds of building materials and tools around them.
They could make a mess in the basement, in the yard, in the garage.
They could get cut, bang their finger, and make noise.
They could go to the local dump and scrounge for things they could use, the scrap yards let them have anything they wanted, yes, the parents had to sign a waiver of injury.
The parents did not buy them ready to use solutions, the children found their own solutions.
True engineering skills start long before they learn how to use the Pythagorean Theorem,
Children play with their heart, we must teach our parents and government to keep our children out of sterile environments, – organized activities, video games, keep them away from things that already have an answerer.
Academia does not teach engineering, academia has the question on page 38, and the answerer on page 39, out here – we only have page 38, our job is to define page 39.

That pretty well describes my approach. The problem is that I never wanted to be anything other than an Engineer and I cannot see why others can fail to be inspired by at least one of the miriad of opportunites in Engineering.

Of the suggestions on offer the one most likely to instill interest in young people is ‘Engineering is a rewarding well paid career.
Sadly for the last 50 years for a large number of extremely good engineers this has not been a true reflection.
Politically motivated ideals coupled with financial greed have blighted the engineering industry, but now with a little luck, the tide is turning.
This should last until the next bout of destructive intervention by the next generation of financial parasites out to make a quick buck at the expense of the majority of the population, not just the engineers.

We need to engender a society where practical skills and getting your hands dirty doing a job is seen as beneficial to society as a whole. Not looked down on as not as worthwhile as manipulating money markets to line the pockets of a few.

‘None of the above’, – they are all reasonable, but surely the way to encourage the next generation is to stress that now, more than EVER, the World needs engineers? Climate change is already striking home, and it’s certainly going to get a lot worse. As engineers we have contributed to this mess, many continue to do so, but we are better equipped than most to help save the ship.

Engineering can make the world a better place, but so much of it is actually destructive, particularly the military, and to a less obvious extent the disciplines related to fossil fuel powered transport. Engineering can be a force for bad as well as good.

Agree, so future engineers should work only on the good side. Fortunately, there is a great chance they will do that, as the young generation is the most caring, dedicated to the common good there ever was. All we need is to convince enough of them to become engineers, good engineers and engineers for good.

I would have gone for the one that said engineering is being creative and enjoying it.
Sadly modern teaching focuses more on a fact based approach or team based consensus – rather than a more scientific exploration and exploration of what could be done.
It does not matter if you are creating software or making a rocket or building a biological machine the approach is engineering science. The sooner/younger this is taught then the better it will be appreciated

I’m not a ‘proper’ engineer, never went to uni no letters after my name, started as an apprentice exactly 40 years ago and, hard as I’ve tried, I’ve never escaped it. How to inspire youngsters, who knows? I like it when something I’ve had a hand in designing and we’ve made appears on TV (usually in the background) or we’re miles from home and I see something and I’ll shout “we made that” to complete indifference from the family but I know, It’s like seeing a part of me, and parts of me are all over the world.

Having done an apprenticeship and 40 years of experience in engineering, I’d say you’re a proper engineer. I believe our profession should be of protected status, but this has both positive and negative connotations, it promotes engineering as a good career, but can alienate those without degrees, charterships, etc, … time served is as good as a degree to me.
To the young I would say in engineering you never stop learning, you’ll never know it all and because there is always something new the engineer can shape the world, which will unfortunately be exploited by the bankers and politicians.

Making the world a better place and Engineers shape the way we live are considered fluffy – I would say the better term might be ‘fuzzy’. Ultimately engineers produce practical solutions with in multidimensional constraints, but the road to the end solution has to navigate the fuzziness. That fuzziness might be of several forms, practical yes, especially when interfacing with and dealing with nature, but also political, economic and social – forming and dealing with regulations being just one example (PESTLE). Whether an individual engineers likes it or not, the messy side of an engineering project will be impacted by politics that don’t necessarily match the individual’s cultural leanings.

For engineering to really take a lead (and inspire a new generation of engineers) it needs engineering leaders who don’t shy away from engaging with these fuzzy issues and confront opponents in some cases – The new runway at Heathrow is just one example. Different engineers will have different opinions and solutions on such subjects – ie they will be political whether they like it or not. Climate change may have several different approaches – large technological fixes which allow for future growth – through to political approaches to attempt to reduce consumption. Some engineers will support ever expanding growth – others will attempt to fix the problems they see previous rounds of technological change has brought.

As I’ve said before engineers can merely act as expert advisors (and then complain when politicians ignore their advice) or they can (in a few cases) take a political lead, use their knowledge and experience to convince and in the process attract young people by showing that Engineering truly takes a leading role, as do other professions, in shaping the way we live.

How very perceptive of Engineering UK to select the week of my 78th birthday: which will coincide with the 60th anniversary of my initiation into our noble Profession. In addition, the several books I have written are to be published then: they describe many elements of my career: and in particular the ways that I have used the splendid wide ranging education (at School and Uni) in achieving a series of pivotal employments and literally scores of consultancy projects.
I have also set-out to expose those other so-called professions and professionals. I see them as simply jumped-up clerks who only manipulate, the words and numbers that describe man’s puny laws, not those of Nature. The Laws we Engineers are blessed to have the opportunity to ‘direct and contain to the benefit of all mankind.’

Would I encourage any young person to follow us? Of course, but be prepared for a life of conflict.

Non of the options are truly inspiring – I came to engineering because it fed a deep seated need to make stuff that works and hopefully make a difference. I have spent a while doing both.
In the right environment a career in Engineering is deeply satisfying on many levels, but we fail to convey that.
Engineering – have fun, make a difference, get well paid for it.
@ Charles R. Schneider – I like your description of how to develop kids interest in Engineering, that’s how it worked for me. As I got older my toys became larger and more complex.

It is a pity that I couldn’t give more than one vote. I think that the first three were all equally important. As a laboratory technician, I was often called upon to think of a way to make something in order to scientifically measure something else, sometimes sophisticated sometimes quite crude. Lab technicians never stop learning, at 78 I am still learning. the habit never really goes away.

As one whose parents denied him an occupation as an engineer, I can say that the model engineering I do now as a largely self-taught hobby is fascinating, exciting, absorbing and wholly fufilling. Had the career materialised I would never have done a day’s work as it would all have been pleasure. That must be the only way to encourage young people to take it up and we must provide EVERY opportunity for them to both see engineering being practised, and to reinstate it as a high status subject in our schools, thereby giving pupils the chance to make things for themselves, other than just wiring up circuit boards to things made by others. Making things that people need nurtures inventiveness, self reliance, a sense of self worth and a true knowledge one’s place in the world.

Obtain and read the books of Nevil Shute Norway -a collaborator with Barnes Wallis of R101 fame, thence the Wellington bomber, and the bouncing bombs: later Shute was an author of great stature in the 40s and 50s: It was my privilege to be ‘tapped’ on the head by that great man when I was 6 months old, sound asleep and taking little interest? He was a colleague (that’s the wrong way round ) of my father -who’s particular skills and interests was lifts and hydraulics in Royal Navy vessels.